Gary Oldman on his first Oscar nomination... finally!

Whenever anyone would make a list of actors who shockingly have never been nominated for an Oscar, Gary Oldman was always near the top. And after being overlooked by the Critics Choice, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards for his impressively contained performance as MI6 agent George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, it was looking like he’d be an also-ran this year as well. But along with underdog nominee Demián Bichir, Oldman managed to displace Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Fassbender and score a Best Actor nomination after all. Oldman called this morning from Berlin, where Tinker Tailor is premiering.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Congratulations, you’re finally an Oscar nominee. GARY OLDMAN: I’m in shock. If you were to take the temperature of the past couple of weeks with SAG and the Globes, we weren’t really expecting anything. I’ve never been nominated before, so I’d gone beyond the point of expecting it. It’s thrilling news.

When you got a BAFTA nomination last week, did you feel like you had a shot today?
You must obviously feel this too — it’s been an unusual awards season, yes? You couldn’t really predict anything. Normally in this race, things are narrowed down. And with this, I think it was anybody’s game. It’s really quite something. And it’s very fitting that I’m standing in Berlin. It’s very much the heart of the Cold War, and the Karla trilogy concludes in Berlin where Smiley gets his man. So it’s joyous that we get this and I just happen to be in Berlin. A screenwriter couldn’t have written it better.

So now we all have to take you off those rundowns of the best never-nominated actors.
I’m not on the list anymore. It’s finally happened. I’ve broken my own record.